Tag: emk

All rituals have purpose. This can be deliberately vague, just like any other art form. You can perform ritual simply for enjoyment. You can perform ritual to achieve some tangible result, though you will often find those results to be subtle, and produce effects more in line with what you truly need than what you think you want. In the same respect, rituals performed for sheer pleasure often produce effects well beyond the scope of the original purpose. Such as raising your own awareness to the reality of love, and strengthening the bonds of love between the participants. While Joseph Campbell called ritual “the enactment of a myth,” this does not limit them to some kind passion play based on a mythological story. In the best rituals a magus creates their own myth.

Frater Threskiornis, Emergent Magick

The Sabbat in Emergent Magick

“WE ARE THE WITCHCRAFT. We are the
oldest organization in the world. When man was born, we were. We sang the first
cradle song. We healed the first wound, we comforted the first terror. We were
the Guardians against the Darkness, the Helpers on the Left Hand Side. Rock
drawings in the Pyrenees remember us, and little clay images, made for an old
purpose when the world was new. Our hand was on the old stone circles, the
monolith, the dolmen, and the druid oak. We sang the first hunting songs, we
made the first crops to grow; when man stood naked before the Powers that made
him, we sang the first chant of terror and wonder. We wooed among the Pyramids,
watched Egypt rise and fall, ruled for a space in Chaldea and Babylon, the
Magian Kings. We sat among the secret assemblies of Israel, and danced the wild
and stately dances in the sacred groves of Greece.”

         –
Jack Parsons, We Are the Witchcraft

Archeological and
anthropological evidence shows that since before recorded history, people from
neighboring tribes would gather together. They would feast, tell stories, sing
songs, and dance. These gatherings would promote trade, the dissemination of
knowledge, help people find mates outside their genetic lineage, and strengthen
social bonds. It was and remains a quintessential human experience. Reflections
of these gatherings exist today, manifesting at music festivals, conventions,
and churches. Sadly, much of the original form has been stripped away, creating
a spectacle to be consumed rather than to be participated in. We believe that bringing
back the original forms and intent of the gathering of the tribes is essential
for our spiritual awakening and for the survival of the species.

We call it the Sabbat. A
loaded term, the use of the word Sabbat to describe a gathering of witches
comes from the Middle Ages, when racist Europeans wanting to link Jewish
religion with Satanism, bastardized the Jewish word for their religious
observance, “Shabbat.” We would not be the first to take a word used against us
and throw it back at our oppressors. And make no mistake, in modern times the
Sabbat is an act of rebellion. It flies against every authority that wishes to
turn us into individual atoms of consumption that simply obey. In this sense, Emergent
Magick can be seen as an ideology. A new form of human interaction that eschews
the 20th century’s social structures—capitalism, communism, and fascism—and
creates a new principle for humans to interact based on community, group
experience, and spiritual fulfillment.

The purpose of the Sabbat is manifold. It
provides context for humans to come together in ways that benefit the group
rather than destroy and take. A successful Sabbat requires all participants to
interact within altered states of consciousness. We commune with each other not
only within the physical dimension, but in a spiritual dimension as well. A
Sabbat has no audience. All participants contribute in their own way. Sabbat
should be seen as not only a noun but a verb. It describes a living, breathing
process. A work of art created by all those who attend. Everything that happens
at a Sabbat—dancing, eating, conversation, lovemaking—contributes to the work
as a whole. The entirety of the Sabbat takes place outside “normal” space and
time. While the normal acquisition of food, shelter, and comfort that occurs
day-to-day also occur during the Sabbat, those activities are given greater
purpose and meaning.

If at all possible, a
Sabbat should be held outdoors. We understand that the elements, access, and
need for privacy prevent many from doing so. We have held many a Sabbat in
homes and other spaces, and the lack of access to natural spaces should not
hold you back. The reason for going out into the wild is that the Sabbat not
only means communing with other humans, but communing with the natural world and
the spirts it contains. Our arrogance as a species leads us to believe we are
somehow outside or above the natural world. In truth, we exist because of it,
and the other beings, both physical and spiritual, are our equals. Interacting
with them as equals opens us up to learning and levels of consciousness
otherwise unattainable. Nothing will remind you of your own animal nature as
much as mud-caked feet, scratches and bruises, and sticks and bugs in your
hair. Hold one weekend-long Sabbat in the woods once per year, and you’ll
remember what’s truly important.

This discovery of what you
find physically and spiritually necessary is another goal of the Sabbat. While
we commune with others and the world around us, we also commune with ourselves.
What you do during a Sabbat should test your limits. A true Sabbat will include
things you never thought yourself capable. Tests of physical, mental, and
spiritual endurance push a magus to truly, “Know Thyself.”

Your Magick – Your Art

We know Emergent Magick can be
maddeningly nonspecific. We only provide examples of actual magical practices
as necessary examples. This is because the appreciation and practice of all
artistic forms is so highly personal. Music serves as the best example of this.
No matter the range of your musical taste, most people return again and again
to a handful of artists in which they have a deep connection. We have all had
that feeling of connecting with a piece of music as if it were created for us.
A magus needs to connect with their magick in the same way. It must be the song
of their heart. Like music, magick encompasses a huge array of styles. Many
have their own specific instruments, expressed in symbols systems. Some of
these instruments overlap between different magical traditions, just like
guitars are used in a multitude of musical genres. But it’s hard to imagine
rock ‘n roll without an electric guitar. Your magick will develop its own
particular set of symbols and rituals you return to again and again. Everyone
likes music, but few people pursue it with passion. Don’t be the type of person who
only listens to the bands they listened to in high school or college. Like
great musicians who constantly expose themselves to new music, a good magus
must constantly be learning about different types of magical systems.
Goetia, Kabbalah, Enochian, witchcraft—the variations of magical
practice are as myriad as the cultures that created them. It’s up to you to
learn about them. There’s no excuse in the internet age to not have at least a
passing knowledge of these systems. You should also drink deep, reading books
and delving into scholarly research when a particular system moves you. Only
through the long exposure to the art of magick can you truly find the one that
fits you.

Emergent Magick Mythology

It is difficult to argue that the beginning of the 20th
century came with a massive change in the collective spirit of humanity.
Aleister Crowley called it the birth of the Aeon of Horus, and I find it hard
to dispute this prophetic vision. But while he saw it as a spirit analogous with
the nature of the child, this was wishful thinking on his part. Horus is the
Hawk of War. He was the deity of divine kingship. The strongman. The rule by
absolute might.

The 20th century came with a collective madness
that gripped the minds of men. Massive wars, like we have never seen before
spread across the planet like wildfire. The wars went beyond the contest of
nations but were methods of genocide that happened not only in Germany but on
every populated continent. This culminated in the discovery and use of the
first atomic bomb.

The splitting of the atom unleashed the potential for the
greatest evil the planet has ever known. Ever since our species has been on the
brink of ultimate destruction. This great spirit of fear and chaos created a
dysfunction that has filtered down to our communities, our families, and our
minds. It drives us to consume our planet, abuse our children, and shun our
neighbors.

But all is not lost.

Just two years before the first atomic bomb test, the countervailing
force that could save us from the atomic monster took form. Its inventor lived
in the only country in Europe that refused to fight. A gentle soul who often
rode his bicycle to work. I believe it is no coincidence the Albert Hoffman was
looking for a way to ease the pain of child birth when he discovered this new,
and yet ancient spirit. The creation of LSD was no accident. It was an act of
balance. The shaman’s medicine, distilled into its most potent form, was a gift
from Gaia. It calls out to the human race to rebuild its love for one another
and for the planet.

It has inspired others to call us back to the great meeting
place of the tribes. To recreate the rites that have healed our communities
since before history. Used in this context, it has the potential to save the
world.   

Emergent Magick is not anti-science, it is anti-scientism. Scientific materialism will never find a universal theory. It will never explain human experience. We have been studying the placebo effect since the 19th century. While researchers can identify changes in brain chemistry caused by placebos, we have yet to identify the mechanism that causes them in the first place. The obvious answer is consciousness, which is always discarded by laboratory scientists as it is unmeasurable and unqualifiable. Even scientists have admitted that reproducible experiments are getting harder to come by as we continue to find increasing complexities. It just may be that some things will never be explained without acknowledging magick’s role in the universe.  

We must re-unite as friends. We must know our neighbors again, or at least the freaky ones. Magick will bind us.

Emergent Magick – Chapter 9: Creation

Many magi spend their
entire careers experimenting with different forms of magick and attempting to
find their true purpose. Such explorations are laudable and even inevitable, as
magick, like religion and art, tries to answer questions so large and complex
that they are impossible to put into words. Even finding an individual true
purpose holds so many implications it can take a life time to discover. Many
magi refer to this as an individual’s true Will, sometimes simply referred to
as Will. The word is intentionally capitalized to differentiate it from
something a person simply wants to do, a matter of ego, from something that
defines their purpose for being. From the simple starting point of discovering
one’s Will a host of questions follow. Does my Will fulfill a greater purpose?
How does my Will interact with others? What do I do when in conflicts? Is there
a greater Will than my own? Is my own Will truly a separate thing, or simply a
limited perception of a greater consciousness?

While we begin this
chapter with such high concepts, it’s only to provide a destination for the map
you will devise to help guide your Emergent practice. So, far we have described
many of the tools used by Emergent magi. Many of the details are left
intentionally blank so as not to lead a potential magus into believing there
exists one true way of doing magick. Unlike so many other books we won’t
provide you with lists of symbols, or mythology, or spells. The secret is not
in here. The only true revelation comes in the process of learning and doing
for yourself.

With that being said, it
is impossible to teach the EMK process without providing examples. The majority
of the examples in this chapter come from the Gutter Bible and the subsequent paradigm created from it by the
Order of Emergent Magi (OEM). A few other examples are included as well to show
how more traditional paradigms can be used in EMK. The key word is examples. We
in no way imply that these paradigms must be used or are suited for any
individual. However, getting on to the business of actually doing magick is
paramount in EMK, and if a magus finds these paradigms interesting, they should
feel free to experiment within them.

In creating your own
Emergent practice it may be helpful to see it as using a map. With a map you
start with where you are and plot your way to a final destination. Your
starting point influences your path, but there may be many routes to the same
destination. There absolutely will be stops and detours along the way. Your
starting point is your temple. That paradigm you have chosen or discovered that
gives you a base set of beliefs to start with.

Second, you choose your
destination. We encourage all magi to be fanciful and to set their sights high.
Why do something as impossible as magick if you don’t use it to achieve
impossible things? Questions like: Is there a universal consciousness? What is
the universe made of? Is everything random or by design? Are the gods real or
just our imagination? Sometimes these questions can be so big they transcend
logic and are difficult to put into words, like the Zen koan, “What is the
sound of one hand clapping?” In the OEM we ask, “What is the purpose of
consciousness?”

Spend some time musing
about your questions, but do not try to answer them. You may have theories, but
the purpose of doing magick is to find the answers. From these questions, drill
down, your next set of questions may also be large and only slightly less
specific. These questions may also be influenced by your choice of paradigm. A
magus that has chosen to follow Thelema, the magical practice based on Kabbalah
and Aleister Crowley’s revelation called The
Book of the Law, may ask themselves, “What is my true Will?” “What is the
nature of love?” When exploring the Gutter
Bible, we asked ourselves, “What is humanities place in the universe?”
“Does alien consciousness exist and how can we possibly understand it?”  

Keep asking questions
until you find one that can possibly be answered or at least guide you in the
right direction, the first stop on your map. The question and how it can be
answered will eventually fit within the beliefs and practices of your paradigm.
This requires an artistic sensibility. Through examination of the Gutter Bible, the OEM discovered the
question, “Can insanity offer a clue to understanding alien consciousness?” The
writings in the Gutter Bible seemed
at times to be profound examinations of the human condition, perhaps from
outside normal human understanding. From that the OEM reasoned that contacting
alien consciousness requires a state of temporary insanity. From there we had
some basis for how to develop the gnosis required.

Belief in Emergent Magick

One of the core differences
between its predecessor, Chaos Magick, and Emergent Magick lies in how they
approach belief. Classic Chaos Magick uses belief as a tool. In that philosophy,
beliefs can be added and discarded as desired. While some chaos magicians hold
core beliefs throughout their magical practice, most change their paradigm
frequently, oftentimes on a whim. Chaos Magick advocates switching beliefs in
order to find the right tool for the job. While this can work if all a magician
is interested in is operative magick, it becomes a detriment to spiritual
growth. A belief can better be seen as a muscle. Use it frequently and it
becomes stronger and more useful. Use it seldom and it fails to perform when
needed.

Another analogy would be
that Emergent Magick sees belief as a temple. The temple can be redecorated. It
can renovated and added to, but remains the same at its core. As a magus learns
more about the nature of the universe through magick, their temple reflects
this. Look at the temples of any religion or magical organization and you will
find that they reflect the beliefs of their followers. In many cases they form
a symbolic microcosm of that organization’s paradigm. A prime example would be
the temples created by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The black and
white checkered floors and black and white pillars represent a belief system
based on a struggle between and union of opposites. It shows a literal
interpretation of the hermetic belief, “As above, so below.” As the magicians
of that order see the universe they try to recreate in their temple. Many
gothic cathedrals were designed in the shape of a cross. The ultimate symbol of
the faith. Even modern Catholic churches have, in their stained glass windows
or by carvings or pictures, the Stations of the Cross, symbolic representations
of the story of the crucifixion.

The strength of a temple
comes from its foundation. While the core philosophy of EMK is magick informed
by magick, a magus needs to start somewhere. Magick is the art of altering
consciousness. But the “art” in that statement contains all of the traditional and
nontraditional symbols and beliefs used by the magus to alter that consciousness.
It can be as simple as believing that the world contains spirits that can be
contacted and invoked. From there the magus develops methods to contact those
spirits and learns from them the other ways of manipulating consciousness and
the nature of the universal consciousness itself.

Building a temple of
belief takes time and careful consideration. There can be many false starts. A
magus may find that their core belief takes them nowhere. In the above example,
perhaps the magus spends a few years summoning spirits but never develops
meaningful communication with them. Perhaps the spirits only teach the magus a
few useful magical tricks but they have no better knowledge of the nature of
the universe than the magus themselves. In that case, a magus may choose to
tear down the foundation of their temple of belief and start over. This should
never be undertaken lightly, less the magus becomes a simple chaos magician,
and never explores a paradigm unto fruition.

Finding the right place to
build your temple of belief takes time and serious exploration. A magus may
take years learning about magical paradigms until they find one suitable to
build upon. There’s nothing wrong with taking an existing and proven magical
paradigm and building off of that. The Order of Emergent Magi finds ancestor
veneration, the oldest magical paradigm, a good place to start. A good
foundation may ultimately contain parts of several belief systems. Received
wisdom, which comes to a magus through visions, dreams, or other random
transmissions also make good starting points. The OEM uses the Gutter Bible, a found artifact, as a
cipher for magical ritual.

A good foundation must
contain mystery. All should not be plain from the beginning. The belief system
should contain elements that are indecipherable unless approached in an altered
state of consciousness. Beware of closed systems, like Kabbalah, which purports
to contain every aspect of the universe in a convenient package of ten
sephiroth. This can limit a magus, as they will undoubtedly find aspects of the
universe that don’t fit within the system.

Remember, however, you are
only choosing a foundation. The most important part of EMK is what you learn
while doing the magick itself. Those become the treasures of your temple. A
magus considers carefully before ever discarding one.

Magick is not a game.
Beliefs are not theories that a magus bandies about and justifies through
intellectual exercise. A magus must hold their beliefs in the core of their
being. For a magus, the world is truly a magical place. When a hoodoo
practitioner throws salt into the corner of a room to banish evil spirits, they
know, not simply think, that evil spirits exist and that they flee from salt.
They never question it. They accept that wisdom passed down through generations
of root doctors. One of the hardest tasks a magus faces is truly internalizing received
wisdom in a society that does not accept magick.